Month: December 2016

Art by Kinuko Craft

My daughter Hope and I were talking about what she was making for Christmas dinner. She said she had decided to make a ” Soul Food” dinner, of fried chicken, collard greens, and other favorites. We chatted about her recipe, vs the Martha Stewart recipe for fried chicken she was thinking about using. Which got me to thinking about Soul Food.

Over the course of my life, I’ve had teachers work with me in the dream time. I’ve received ” downloads” of spiritual material that has been life-altering. Some of this material is from other cultures, other spiritual traditions, in languages I don’t speak when I’m awake. Sometimes it’s presented in diagrams, with symbols that are ancient. Sometimes I’m asked to travel to a specific location, and asked to do healing or protection work for someone who needs it. These events are real, not dreams or visions. They are happening now, in real time, and are very powerful alchemical experiences.

One of the teachers that has been working with me is an Asian Master, a patient and kind monk, wearing a saffron robe. The other night, we were standing in front of a table, with two large white frosted glass bowls in front of us. He said:” You have these two bowls. The one on the left can feed the birds and the animals. The one on the right can feed humanity. Who do you feed? Which bowl do you choose?” As I looked at the bowls, my heart filled with love, and I knew what my answer would be. I said:” I fill both bowls with love, so all will be fed, because love is the food of the Soul”. He smiled, and said ” Yes. Exactly.”

There is no power in the Universe greater than love. Love heals, love transforms. Love is the ultimate alchemist. Love is the ultimate Soul Food. A wonderful affirmation might be: ” In every moment I am filled with Divine Love. I radiate Divine Love out into the world. Divine Love transforms my life, releasing all hurts, all sorrow, all burdens that are not mine to carry. I manifest only beauty and joy through the gift of Divine Love, and I am filled with gratitude.”

As we navigate this somewhat challenging time, always remember this spiritual truth: Love is everywhere. We are always surrounded by it. We are always upheld. Tune in to that. Breathe. Feel it, alive in your heart. Give the world the ultimate Soul Food it so desperately needs. Be love. Blessings, Judith

Art by Kinuko Craft

As we approach the Winter Solstice, we enter the Earth sign of Capricorn. The Earth Element in Chinese medicine represents sympathy, empathy, mindfulness, boundaries, as well as family and social issues. It represents our sense of our identity, and how that has been impacted by our families, and cultural influences. I’d like to focus on boundaries, if I may.

Healthy boundaries are critical in life. We live in a world that chips away at them. We are living in a country where narcissism has become a pandemic. This means that for each of us, learning to have not just healthy boundaries, but radical boundaries, is what it’s going to take to survive the state of the world at this time.

My boundaries and psychic shields have always been radical ones. I’ve shared that I grew up with a mother with serious mental illness, diagnosed when I was 10. Now, all biochemical brain issues are serious. The type my mother suffered with included psychotic breaks with reality, hallucinations, and mania. Even the antipsychotic medications failed to stabilize her completely. I became her caretaker for a time, at 13. As an Empath and a psychic, that wasn’t hard. Compassion is what Empaths do. I learned how to have shields almost immediately, to avoid being sucked into the chaos of her brain patterns, the mood swings, the hallucinations, the terror. I learned how to find my center, and to stay on it, so that I could help her, when she was cycling. This was the hidden gift of living with someone suffering with mental illness. Radical boundaries. This makes it easier for me to teach that to others, since you can’t teach what you don’t know.

I also learned a lot about people’s coping strategies, and denial… Watching good people not look at the reality of what was happening, day in and day out…. Minimizing it, normalizing it, or avoiding it completely, to the detriment of all concerned. We are watching this same dynamic play out in front of our eyes, right now. This is not about political parties. That takes the focus away from how and why this happened. This is about the dangers of ignoring, minimizing and normalizing mental illness. For the first time in our nations history, a mentally ill person will be running the country. Those that helped create this situation had their own reasons for doing so, basically because people like this are easily manipulated. For those of us who understand that, I’d like to offer some magical/supernatural suggestions on how to come out of the next few years unscathed.

Nikola Tesla once said ” Everything is energy, frequency, and vibration”. Now is the time to reject fear and negativity. It is a time to get serious about creating titanium shields, so that we don’t get sucked into the vortex of crazy that is about to be unleashed. ( No one can reason with someone who’s cycling. They are not controllable. At all.) The question becomes, how do we protect ourselves, on every level, from the flaming wreckage people like this can create? The answer is this: Metaphysicss. Intention work. Magic. Shifting vibration and frequency. This is not only doable, it is essential, on every level, not just for ourselves, but for the planet. The planet needs us desperately right now. The person about to take office is a climate change denier, among other things, he believes it’s a hoax. The planet is on fire. We don’t have the time to waste on further debate. Earth Mother is crying out for help, and we will not abandon her.

Each of us needs to still the mind, and avoid the seduction of the Earth plane facts, reality, and truth about what is happening. This is no different than healing a disease. Once you have the diagnosis, you immediately set out to heal your thought around it, while working on the trinity of body, mind, and spirit. We are not IGNORING the facts, we are CHANGING them. We are using our personal magic to heal both ourselves, and the planet. We would never affirm to ourselves ” I am sick”. This is no different. We will not affirm ” This is horrible, and we’re doomed”. We are not accepting fear or rage into ourselves. Turn off the news. There is nothing there you need to see. Instead, tune into a different broadcast: Divine Love, Divine Intelligence, Divine Wisdom. THIS is the only energy, frequency, and vibration we want to allow in. There is no such thing as helplessness, for a warrior. THIS is the battle, and Lightworkers are leading the charge.

Here are some affirmations that may help. ” I am always, in every moment, surrounded and protected by Divine Love. I surround Earth Mother and all living beings with Divine Love. We are healthy, we are thriving, we are safe. ” ” I am blessed by Divine Love, which flows through me like a golden river. I radiate love out into the world. I am shielded from all negativity. I vibrate to the highest levels. I choose to be a beacon of light in the darkness.” ” I am always Divinely guided in all that I do. I release all those who choose fear, pain, and negativity as their path. I now manifest love, abundance, and beauty, in all areas of my life.” Light some Sage. Light a candle. Work with your Crystals. But WORK. ( For those of you who work with stones, the stones that deflect the fear and negativity of the Race Mind are Obsidian, Smokey Quartz, black Tourmaline, and Aegirine).

The Hopi have a saying: ” We are the ones we have been waiting for”. Let us also be inspired by the Lakota people at Standing Rock, the Water Protectors. We will pray, we will do ceremony, we will protect Earth Mother, as spiritual warriors. Every prayer matters. We do not give our power away to fear, or to all of the manifestations of fear: Racism, misogyny, bigotry, or greed. We stand in our magic, which lives in our hearts. Our boundaries and shields are strong, because they are founded in love. We stand together in Love. We stand. We are fierce, we are fearless, and we are many. We are the Bringers Of The Light. We are the Guardians of the Earth. On this Winter Solstice, stand with me. We are all relations. Blessings, Rev Judith Star-Medicine

*** Thank you to my dear friend J, and to Kinuko Craft, for the gift of this print. I love you, and I am blessed. May it inspire all who see it.***

My brother Artie

As abusive as our culture can be to women, it is equally as abusive to men. Male energy is very different than female, male energy is Yang in nature, while female energy is Yin. Each of us has both Yin and Yang within ourselves, both are sacred.

I was blessed to grow up with three younger brothers. That became the basis for my deep love for what we call in Native tradition, ” the Male Shield”. Watching my brothers play, tumbling over themselves like puppies, wrestling with each other, laughing, enjoying each other, was joyful. Their boundless exuberance was incredible. Little boys don’t sit still. They aren’t designed to. I often grieve our educational system, that expects them to. I wonder if as many kids would be diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, if they were given the opportunity to just MOVE, every hour or so.

Watching my brothers, their bond, their love for each other that spanned decades, taught me so much about men, warrior spirit, and the sweet heart that men have. A little boy will offer you his last piece of candy, all melted or squashed, that he’s been saving, with a generosity that is staggering. Their loyalty, coupled with fierceness, is deeply moving. If anyone messed with one of my brothers, he messed with all three, much to that person’s dismay, because by their teens, they were all huge. 6’7,” 6’4″, and 6’2″ being the smallest. Their fairness and kindness was wonderful to watch.

I’ve wondered who made the rule that if you’re born with external plumbing, you have to put your dreams on a back burner to become a ” good provider”. No matter that you may want to be a writer, an artist, a musician… those are just dreams, and men can’t be allowed those. No, you have to do something PRACTICAL, and have your dream as a hobby. What? Why? Our dreams are what keep us alive, and give our lives meaning. Stripping men of their dreams is the cruelest thing the culture does to them. I believe that is what contributes to the pandemic of addiction we see, the death of dreams.

It’s less obvious than misogyny, but just as pervasive, the abuse of the Male Shield. It’s heartbreaking. Men are celebrated if they are warriors when they are soldiers…. until they come home. Then, society wants them to forget what they were exposed to, forget about their battles, and return to a kind of placidity that is completely at odds with their military experiences. If they have PTSD, they are made to feel less than, ashamed, that somehow a REAL man wouldn’t have that. That it would be easy for a real man to kill, to wound, or to watch friends die. Some fall into depression, or become suicidal, from the rejection of a culture that has no understanding or respect for the truth of the Male Shield.

The truth of the Male Shield lies in the sweet heart of it. That incredible combination of fierceness and sweetness. Gentleness and strength. Passion and compassion. The capacity for empathy. That’s the Male Shield. Western culture has absolutely no clue about it. It sees men that are bullies, or who are aggressive, or are narcissists, as ” real men”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Real men don’t bully. Bullying comes out of fear. Aggression comes out of fear. Courage comes out of love, that sense of honor and integrity that a real man has, all of the time.

I’m married to a wonderful man, with that sweet heart. Generous, kind, and funny. But…. don’t threaten his children, me, our animals, or anything he sees as being vulnerable. That would be a big mistake. Huge. Out comes the fierceness, the fearlessness, the warrior. His eyes turn to flame. It’s fascinating to watch. Sleeping next to him makes me feel completely safe.

Some may wonder how I, as an incest survivor, and a survivor of domestic violence, can have so much love and respect for the Male Shield. That’s easy to answer. Those beings that are predators and offenders are not men. They are something else, something dark, twisted, and pathetic. Evil. The Male Shield vibrates to the Sun, it is radiant light, healing and warming. Lying next to a man is like lying next to a furnace, their body exuding warmth. They burn hotter than women. It’s wonderful, unless it’s summertime and you have no air conditioning.

It is the natural instinct of the Male Shield to protect and defend. It doesn’t mean that men see women as weak, when they want to protect us. It’s part of the way a man is hard-wired. That’s the fierceness. That’s the warrior spirit. I grieve that the culture corrupts that, by its sexual objectification of women. Men are bombarded by images and music that can taint their experience of the Female Shield, robbing them of that sweet heart that is inherent in all men, turning compassion into passion…. Love and gentleness into lust, sex for the sake of sex…. Giving them permission to indulge in a darker side of sexuality, which has nothing to do with intimacy, in fact, destroying any chance for true intimacy, which is founded on tenderness and vulnerability.

A real man can be tender, kind, vulnerable, while at the same time being passionate and fierce. They are the storm, the thunder, the lightning, the dragon. At the same time, they are the wolf that mates for life, the peaceful lake, the beautiful field of wildflowers, the trees, rooted into the Earth, enduring.

I have been blessed in my life to have journeyed with them, both four-legged and two-legged. The teachers in my life, from Native elders to Taoist Master Yuen, have all embodied the highest vibration of the Male Shield. Don’t ever become discouraged by some of the worst aspects we see of what appears to be Male. It isn’t. It’s the poorest, most diluted imitation of it, posers trying to fake maleness, without having any idea of the beauty and power of the true Male Shield.

May this perspective bless all who read it. The photo I’ve included is of my brother Artie, my middle brother, who passed away in 2000. He was forty five. One of the finest men I’ve ever known. I miss you, dude. I love you. Blessings, Judith

*** Some of my beloved four-leggeds on the other side… Nardo, ( my horse), Willy and Onyx, ( my German Shepherds), Piewacket, ( my Siamese cat) and Ishta, ( my Birman cat) Thank you all for representing the sweet heart and fierceness of the Male Shield in the animal kingdom. Love you all.***